TERRE HAUTE — By a combined total of five points, Rose-Hulman lost both ends of a hard-fought basketball doubleheader to Bluffton University on Saturday in Hulbert Arena.
The female Engineers got 12 points from freshman Alisa Dickerson, but two potential score-tying shots in the final three seconds did not fall and Bluffton held on for a 52-50 victory.
Later in the afternoon, the Rose men received adequate offensive firepower from Jeff McCartney with 16 points, Lorenzo Rice with 15 and Daniel Lowers with 14, but Bluffton overcame the Engineers’ strong finish to pull out a 55-52 triumph.
The setbacks dropped the Rose-Hulman women to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference and its men to 2-4 and 0-2 respectively.
In the women’s game, the home team led 24-16 late in the first half and 27-22 at halftime before stretching its advantage to 41-29 on a 3-pointer by Nicole Klass midway through the second half. But the Beavers from Ohio eventually battled back to take a 48-47 lead on a jumper by Becky Ruble with 4:09 showing on the scoreboard.
With less than two minutes to go, the visitors boosted their margin to 52-47 on a free throw by Emily Shellabarger and Dickerson answered with a jumper to pull the Engineers within 52-49.
A free throw by Eli Baca sliced Rose’s deficit to 52-50 with 38 seconds remaining. A missed jumper by Bluffton gave the Engineers an opportunity to win or tie the game, but a 6-foot jumper by Dickerson and a rebound shot by Donna Marsh were off the mark before the final buzzer.
Bluffton’s top scorers were Shellabarger with 14 points, Ginny Buckingham with 13 and Kim Miller with 10. The Beavers improved their records to 5-2 and 1-1.
“About midway through the second half, we lost our focus of what had gotten us to that point,” Rose-Hulman coach Jon Prevo said afterward. “We stopped doing the little things that put us in that position [of being ahead]. Basically, Bluffton just outworked us.”
Prevo added that the loss could not blamed on a lack of effort by his players, because they did work hard.
“We’ve just got to be able to maintain our focus for longer periods of time and stick with our gameplan,” he noted.
Prevo said the defeat hurt Rose’s chances of contending for the HCAC title, but it didn’t kill them because plenty of games remain on the schedule.
“Teams that are really going to compete for the conference championship will hold serve at home [which Rose-Hulman did not do Saturday] and win some games on the road,” Prevo emphasized.
The Engineers’ schedule doesn’t get any easier. Their next game will be Wednesday night at Anderson, which won the HCAC regular-season title in 2007-08 and received the preseason favorite label in a poll of league coaches in 2008-09.
In the men’s game, Bluffton went almost the first five minutes without scoring. After Rose seized a 6-2 advantage, the Beavers got hot, using a pair of free throws by Colt Cunningham, an inside jumper by Nick Wilson, a 3-point goal by Wilson and a baby hook by Wilson to catapult on top 11-6 with 9:33 left in the first half.
Bluffton padded its cushion to 25-13 on an inside fielder by Josh Eichar with 4:15 remaining in the half, although Rose-Hulman managed to cut its deficit to 27-22 by halftime.
An 8-0 Bluffton run — keyed by two treys from Josiah Stober — made the score 35-24 early in the second half. But the difference between the teams gradually dwindled until Rose’s Steve Ricks tied the score at 43-43 with back-to-back baskets.
However, the Beavers quickly responded with an inside bucket by Stober, a 12-foot jumper by Cunningham, a jump hook by Wilson and two free throws by Cunningham to regain the lead at 51-43 with 49.9 seconds to go.
Game over, right?
Not so fast.
McCartney sank a running 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 34.2 seconds left and Rose-Hulman coach Jim Shaw immediately called timeout. When play resumed, Lowers stole Bluffton’s in-bound pass and converted a layup, which took a whole two seconds off the clock and made the score 51-47 in the visitors’ favor.
Bluffton was able to in-bound successfully on its next possession and forced Rose to foul, resulting in two free throws by Aaron Taylor with 23.5 seconds remaining.
Another 3-point goal by McCartney and a driving basket through traffic by McCartney in the final 16.8 seconds were impressive, but not enough to prevent the Engineers’ second HCAC setback of the week.
“I’m not happy with any loss … but I have to be pleased with some of the things I saw today,” Shaw assessed. “I think we grew up a little bit today.”
Bluffton (6-1, 2-0) was paced by Eichar and Cunningham with 11 points apiece and Taylor with 10.
Rose will be at home Wednesday night to face Anderson.
Men’s game
Bluffton University 55
Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp
Rufenacht 23 0-1 0-0 0-0 3 1 1 0
Taylor 24 4-6 0-1 2-2 2 1 1 10
Stober 11 3-3 2-2 0-0 0 1 3 8
Eichar 30 2-5 1-2 6-8 7 2 1 11
Cunningham 30 3-12 1-6 4-4 1 1 1 11
Lee 10 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0
Luderman 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Leimeister 10 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 0 0
Pothast 14 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 0
Wilson 22 6-12 1-7 0-1 7 0 1 13
Farley 22 1-3 0-0 0-0 4 1 2 2
Totals 19-46 5-19 12-15 33* 10 12 55
Rose-Hulman 52
Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp
Rice 29 5-8 0-2 5-6 6 2 5 15
Harlan 16 1-4 0-0 0-0 0 1 2 2
Knotts 13 0-1 0-1 0-0 2 0 5 0
McCartney 39 6-14 4-8 0-0 1 1 2 16
Lowers 38 6-9 2-3 0-2 3 3 0 14
Hall 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Simon 17 0-3 0-0 0-0 3 3 0 0
Haslag 17 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Ricks 11 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 4
Kleman 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0
Crane 10 0-3 0-0 1-2 2 1 1 1
Totals 20-46 6-15 6-10 23* 11 17 52
Halftime score — BU 27, RH 22. FG Pct. — BU .413, RH .435. 3-pt. FG Pct. — BU .263, RH .400. FT Pct. — BU .800, RH .600. Steals — BU 7 (Eichar 3, Taylor 2), RH 10 (Lowers 5, Rice 3). Turnovers — BU 19, RH 18. Blocks — BU 2 (Taylor and Wilson), RH 3 (Rice, Hall and Ricks). (*) Includes team rebounds — BU 6, RH 4. Att. — 225.
Women’s game
Bluffton University 52
Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp
Buckingham 34 6-13 1-2 0-2 12 0 3 13
Miller 30 3-8 0-0 4-8 7 3 2 10
Shellabarger 31 5-12 0-0 4-6 10 2 4 14
Daman 11 0-2 0-1 0-0 3 0 0 0
Auer 25 0-8 0-4 6-8 3 2 2 6
Amis 14 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Yoder 21 1-5 1-3 0-0 0 2 3 3
Lewis 5 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Ruble 8 1-4 0-2 2-2 3 2 0 4
Stegmaier 11 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Ebbeskotte 10 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2
Totals 17-56 2-13 16-26 43* 11 15 52
Rose-Hulman 50
Player mi fg 3pt ft r a pf tp
Banet 23 1-2 0-1 0-0 3 0 4 2
Bowermaster 15 3-4 0-0 0-0 4 0 1 6
Ridgway 28 3-10 0-0 2-2 7 1 4 8
Baca 39 3-5 0-0 1-2 5 8 3 7
Dickerson 32 4-8 2-4 2-4 4 2 4 12
Klass 18 1-4 1-3 1-2 1 1 1 4
Kemp 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 2 2
Marsh 18 1-4 0-0 0-2 2 0 1 2
Henke 19 2-3 0-0 3-6 2 1 2 7
Totals 19-42 3-8 9-18 32* 13 22 50
Halftime score — RH 27, BU 22. FG Pct. — BU .304, RH .452. 3-pt. FG Pct. — BU .154, RH .375. FT Pct. — BU .615, RH .500. Steals — BU 11 (Auer 4, Miller and Lewis 2), RH 4 (Banet, Ridgway, Baca and Dickerson). Turnovers — BU 12, RH 21. Blocks — BU 1 (Shellabarger), RH 8 (Marsh 3, Baca and Dickerson 2, Ridgway). (*) Includes team rebounds — BU 4, RH 3. Att. — 150.
College
By combined 5 points, Bluffton sweeps Rose men, women
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